The Man Who Would Save the World
by sparklyscorpion
Summary: Five vignettes about Adrian Veidt. Mostly based on the graphic novel, except Adrian runs the Crimebusters meeting like he does in the movie. Genfic, no pairing.
1. i

_Author's note: I don't own Watchmen or any of the characters; I'm just playing with them._

_Thanks to Mongie for betaing!_

* * *

i.  
Adrian Veidt had spent a good portion of his youth retracing Alexander the Great's footsteps, but he has not yet successfully emulated them in his own time. He is quickly approaching thirty; at that age, Alexander was at the height of his power, with millions of subjects paying him tribute. Adrian is only a glorified janitor, sweeping the scum from the city streets.

He can almost hear the seconds ticking by, marking how he has failed to do enough, and yet his work is never done. Even if he had an eternity to deal with the gangs and drug syndicates of New York, Adrian would never be able to eradicate them completely. There are too many to fight, too many who grasp at power with bloodstained hands, and Adrian simply does not have eternity at his disposal. He makes a point of staying in excellent shape, but he is still susceptible to disease and injury. His idol's untimely demise serves as a reminder of his own mortality.

Not even the smartest man in the world can do everything on his own. Alexander the Great knew this, too; after all, he had not conquered Persia by himself. He'd needed soldiers to execute his orders.

There are other masked vigilantes patrolling the streets of New York City at night; once, the costumed heroes had even banded together to fight the lawbreakers of the city.

Adrian believes that it is time for a reprise.


	2. ii

_Author's note: I don't own Watchmen or any of the characters; I'm just playing with them._

_Thanks to Mongie for betaing!

* * *

_ii.  
He watches the map burn and realizes that this is the closest he has ever come to failure. Adrian had assembled the other crime fighters because he'd believed that they shared his vision of a better world. That had apparently been a mistake on his part, one of the few he ever recalls making.

The second Silk Spectre was just a little girl prancing around in a revealing latex costume. She wasn't even old enough to legally smoke a cigarette. Dr. Manhattan's abilities and intellect had sounded most promising, but he was more interested in eyeing the new Silk Spectre than solving humanity's problems.

Rorschach was concerned about the publicity that a united front might attract. Adrian doesn't trust him anyway; the man has earned a reputation on the streets as being a merciless brute when it comes to interrogating suspects, and the thought of working with him is rather repulsive. It is almost laughable, really, that Rorschach's partner is the straight-laced Nite Owl. He had seemed promising too – intelligent, educated, from a background similar to Adrian's – but, in the end, Nite Owl was better suited to old tales about knights and chivalry. His focus is on the past, not the future and what it can hold.

And then there was the Comedian…

Adrian had invited him to the meeting because he was the only living member of the original Minutemen who hadn't retired or been committed to an asylum. He'd spent most of his time ignoring everyone and smoking that obnoxious cigar. When he'd finally decided to speak, Adrian had found himself wishing that the Comedian had kept silent for the rest of the night. The man had splintered the group, destroying all hopes of a real team being built, just as he'd destroyed that map.

But as he stares at the charred paper still clinging to the tackboard, Adrian thinks that inviting the Comedian might not have been a complete mistake after all. Perhaps he has been going about changing the world in all of the wrong ways. Maybe he should focus less energy on reacting to crime and devote more time to preventing it from occurring in the first place by removing the motivators – greed, aggression, poverty. _Yes_, he thinks, stroking his chin thoughtfully. _The Comedian might be right about this_.

Still, he is disappointed, even though he has learned something of value tonight. Adrian blames those feelings on his dashed expectations of an elite crime fighting unit. He does not admit, not even to himself, that he is mostly disappointed with the evening because he did not find his own Hephaestion among the group - no confidante, no close friend, no one who will understand him.

Adrian Veidt is still separated from the very humanity that he wishes to save.


	3. iii

_Author's note: I don't own Watchmen or any of the characters; I'm just playing with them._

_Thanks to Mongie for betaing!

* * *

_iii.  
In Alexander's time, the world was conquered by brute force; in Adrian's time, this is not feasible. Alexander's methods will not work in modern days; they are antiquities, relics from another era. The world is too big, too complicated, for mere armies to subdue it. Multinational corporations hold the power now, and so Adrian starts one.

He fights crime for a few more years, but he lacks the zeal that he had once possessed in his youthful naïveté. Besides, his schemes are much grander now than tackling a few mob bosses or gang leaders in New York City; he leaves the other masked vigilantes to do that work. Sometimes he teams up with Nite Owl to patrol the streets, when Rorschach pulls one of his disappearing acts, but Ozymandias makes fewer and fewer appearances. In 1975, he decides to devote himself entirely to running his businesses and retires.

Society is fascinated with him, a rich playboy who fights criminals in his spare time. Sometimes he dons his costume at appearances, but he always leaves the mask in his penthouse. His publicist says that the people need to see his face, and Adrian agrees, especially after they launch the new Ozymandias action figure line. It is a runaway hit.

Everything he develops is a success: the perfume, the toothpaste, the household cleaning supplies, the fabrics, the cars, the floating billboards, all of it. Conventional business wisdom says to focus on one product and excel at it, but Adrian defies convention. He simply excels at everything. Financial publications dub him with several monikers; "the golden boy with the golden touch" and "modern-day Midas" seem to be their favorites.

He had been a millionaire at seventeen, but he'd given all of the money away. Now he is a billionaire at thirty-six, and he gives a great deal of that money away too. He sinks billions of dollars into research that will help the human race – genetic engineering, alternative sources of energy, better irrigation systems – and all the while he earns even more money, even more respect.

An ordinary man would probably let all of the attention go to his head, but Adrian has never been an ordinary man. He has one goal in life, and that is to help humankind in any way he can. He has been bestowed with the gift of superior intellect, and he will use it to make his mark on the world, just as Alexander branded his own name into the annals of history.

Still, he is unhappy, unfulfilled. Countries are marching towards war, just as they had in Alexander's time; the only differences now are that these countries have weapons that can destroy everything, and they have leaders foolish enough to use them. Adrian has made the world a better place, but he has not yet saved it.

Something else must be done.


	4. iv

_Author's note: I don't own Watchmen or any of the characters; I'm just playing with them._

_Thanks to Mongie for betaing!_

* * *

iv.  
After his retirement, Adrian invites Jon and Laurie to visit his newly-completed sanctuary in Antarctica. They are a couple now, and Adrian somewhat fancies himself a matchmaker, even though he did nothing to bring them together except invite them both to the same meeting. Besides, Jon can still be useful to him; Adrian wants to discuss harnessing his power into alternative forms of energy that don't pollute the environment.

Laurie is impressed with his genetically-altered lynx, Bubastis. Jon smiles slightly as Laurie pets the animal, but Adrian does not miss the tiny flicker in his nearly pupil-less eyes. Later, out of Laurie's hearing, Jon confides that all of the recent technological advances disturb him.

They disturb Adrian too. He turns away from Jon and stares out at the snow; in the glass, he can see Laurie and Bubastis' reflections. Bubastis is lying on her side, her tongue lolling from her mouth as Laurie rubs the cat's belly. Adrian's army of scientists has genetically altered the lynx's aggressiveness, successfully removing most of it. There is hope that the same can be done for the human species, but there isn't time.

He's experiencing a crippling sense of déjà vu; once again, he is doing all that he can, and yet he is not nearly fast enough. The Cold War is heating up, and the two superpowers seem to be hurtling towards mutual destruction. He is racing against another clock, one much more ominous than the one that marks his own mortality. This clock counts down the mortality of the entire human race, and there isn't much time - a decade, maybe a little more if he's lucky.

There is little to do in Karnak except think, and that is why Adrian comes here. There are so few moments of peace to be found in New York City. It was during one of those still moments, while he was idly scratching Bubastis' head, that the idea first came to him. It repulsed him at first, and it still does, but he is growing accustomed to the bitter taste in his mouth when he thinks of his plan.

Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. Alexander the Great understood that, and so does Adrian Veidt.

He focuses on Jon's reflection in the glass now. He is no Hephaestion, but he is the closest thing that Adrian has ever had to a compatriot, a friend, and he must betray him.

Jon understands what it is like to be separate from humankind, and yet they are very different men. Jon's increasing apathy for the world around him might not be visible to everyone, but Adrian can sense it. Adrian, on the other hand, feels more compelled than ever to do something. He tells himself that this is because he is a humanitarian. He tells himself that his motivations are completely unselfish, that he has the sincerest intentions. It is not because his own life is tied to this little world, while Jon is free to go wherever he wishes in the universe.

It is not because he is still a part of the human race, and therefore, he must ultimately share its fate.


	5. v

_Author's note: I don't own Watchmen or any of the characters; I'm just playing with them._

_Thanks to Mongie for betaing!_

* * *

v.  
The jubilation that had bubbled inside his chest only a few short hours ago has cooled, leaving only a leaden weight in its place, and Adrian does not understand why. His plan has succeeded; he has singlehandedly averted nuclear war and saved the world.

He has not done it for glory. Adrian deliberately crafted his plan so practically no one would realize that he was the one behind it. He does not need more admiration from the public; he already has enough of that, and he will certainly earn more as he carefully stitches together the world's wounds. All of that is meaningless to him, anyway; there are benefits to be held and cities to be rebuilt, and those are his priorities now.

Only the remnants of the Crimebusters know what has happened, and they are all gone. Jon has left the planet again, presumably forever this time. Dan and Laurie had both disappeared shortly after pledging their silence. And Rorschach…well, if Rorschach makes it back to the United States, and Jon had assured him that that was unlikely, no one will believe him anyway. He's nothing more than a bum, a psychopath who thinks that he can solve the world's problems with his fists, a lunatic who splutters about conspiracies. No one will believe him over Adrian Veidt, the golden boy who will build utopia on earth.

And yet Adrian feels vaguely unhappy as he sits in his chair, watching the news stations from all around the world, each screen proclaiming his triumph. His hand curls instinctively to pet Bubastis, but she is not in her usual spot. She is gone, like the people he had once thought of as friends, like the millions he has killed to secure the lives of billions. They're all gone.

His palm hurts, and he looks down at it, surprised. He's nearly forgotten about catching that bullet, and he's neglected to bandage the wound. Adrian reaches to ring for one of his servants, but then he remembers. They're gone too.

For the first time in years, he is completely alone.

Karnak has always been a refuge for him, a fortress from the outside world, but he will not return here again. This is a place of death, a temple of sacrifice to the god of world peace. There is no Bubastis with her nails clicking against the floor, no servants scuttling about, no life left in his prized terrarium. There is no one and nothing except Adrian Veidt, staring at his television screens as blood drips from his hand onto the floor.

He has saved the world at large, but he has destroyed his own private one in the process.


End file.
